Traditional medicineOct 28, 2009
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I was examining a woman yesterday to see if she was healthy enough to have dental work and as I looked at her stomach, I noticed that she had multiple round scars. Although I had heard of the traditional medicine practice of coining (placing hot coins on the stomach), this was the first time that I had seen it. It made me think about the role of traditional medicine in healing. Each one of the 52 mothers in our study has used traditional medicines, mostly dissolved in alcohol or water, with two main purposes: to increase breast milk and avoid infection. It has been shown that one of the oldest traditional medicines, artemesia, can be used effectively against malaria that is resistant to other drugs. Although some of these traditional medications may be useful, we are concerned that others may be depleting the mothers' vitamin B1 stores. We hope to do some laboratory studies in the US to explore this more.
The most interesting sight today was a man and his daughter herding their ducklings back home along the busy road. There were likely thousands of ducklings that looked like a wave going down the street as motorcycles weaved in between.
